Monday, October 31, 2005

Still looking for something quick and easy for Halloween? The Star Wars website has some higher-end printable masks (including General Grievous, right, my favourite asthmatic assassin) that you can knock off in moments.

Our young fellow is going as Batman. I'll be heading out as an Evil Henchman.

Burt Bacharach has had more than a few career revivals in his time. On the occasion of his first solo album in pretty much 30 years (put it this way - Rumours came out that year), a quiz on the CBC arts site testing your Burt knowledge.

A not-so-funny thing happened for several dozen Rex Goudie fans earlier this week. They dutifully lined up at the forum ― Mile One stadium, to be precise ― and waited for hours for their chance to buy tickets for a CD launch next month.

As you may have heard, many of them didn't even get a chance to stand at the wicket.

The show sold out in less than a half-hour, largely because most of the tickets were sold online and over toll-free phone calls.

It was a harsh lesson for those who left empty-handed; waiting until spring for Goudie's tour to roll into St. John's doesn't seem like much consolation.

It was also a strong lesson about how powerfully the entertainment business has moved online.

Dialing for tickets is obviously a popular method ― and Mile One says many disgruntled Goudie fans were not able to get a call through (in an echo of this summer's Canadian Idol frustrations) ― but it's obvious that online sales were the phantom spoiler.

Lining up is an old-fashioned way ― albeit a satisfying one ― to get something. When you're in a line, you know, literally, where you stand: everyone ahead of you will get served before you, and everyone behind you will have, as it were, to wait their turn.

Not so online.

At the moment that tickets go on sale, online vendors can quickly, and automatically, handle bookings.

There's something to be said about looking at a floor plan, leaning in to a wicket window, and putting your finger on your preferred choice, but let's face facts: that's old school.

I've bought tickets online on several occasions (although never in quite so mad a rush), and I much prefer the no-muss, little fuss involved.

Perhaps that's why some prime entertainment centres on the mainland are shifting all (not some, but all) of their ticket sales online.

That's fine, especially if you're a web-ready concert-goer, able to use your clicks for tix.

But what if you're offline? That is, what if you ― like millions of Canadians ― don't have a computer, or access to one?

What if ― like countless others ― you have a computer, but you've never figured out how to shop online? (Or perhaps, you're leery about e-commerce, after all these years?)

I guess that's where toll-free lines come into play … if they come in at all. Again, there seems to be a trend to giving the greatest emphasis to online sales.

I have a hunch that in a number of years (and maybe not that high a number) we'll think of lining up for concert tickets in much the same way that we look back on queues on a Friday afternoon at a bank.

In other words, something that seemed perfectly ordinary in its time, but which seems alien only a generation down the line.

Garry Trudeau's iconic comic strip (the first ever to win a Pulitzer prize, for its Watergate-era material) celebrated its 35th birthday this week. It's still going strong; click here to read the strip, not to mention other links related to what's in the news.

Add this site to your bookmarks if you find yourself looking for health and medical information. It's a site that allows you to conduct various kinds of searches, all from one launch pad. I liked the fact that searching for a particular term, for instance, allows you to then leapfrog to a search of medical literature.

I'm of the camp that advertising tells us more about ourselves than perhaps we want to admit. Maybe it's easier to acknowledge this through a rear-view mirror. This site collects promotional images that were used to sell cars, wagons, furniture and other goods in the 1950s, at the peak of the so-called Populuxe era. For some, this will be quite the trip down memory lane.

On Friday's trivia episode of Radio Noon's Crosstalk, Anne Budgell and I talked about scary bits in the movies. I mentioned a list produced last month in Premiere magazine on the 25 most shocking moments in movie history ... here's a link to read it for yourself. The shocks, as you will see, are more about a slap upside the face rather than blood, guts, gore and werewolves. The Crying Game, after all, ranked No. 1, for reasons that will be obvious even to many people who never needed to see it. (If you missed the show, incidentally, the archive is here.)

This headline was published in the New York Daily News on Oct. 30, 1975. It was instantaneously notorious, and effective ... Gerald Ford lost the subsequent election. It was sensational in part, too, because Ford didn't actually tell NYC to drop dead; he only ruled out a federal bailout.

William Brink, the managing editor of the News, boiled down the emotions, though, in true tab fashion.

On Oct. 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford ruled out federal aid for the city to prevent an unprecedented default. Using a pencil on sheets of newsprint paper, Brink wrote, "DROP DEAD," then, above it, "FORD TO CITY."

"Terrific," said Editor Mike O'Neill, who recalled Brink yesterday as "a great newspaperman, a superb writer and editor ... with a surefire instinct for a good story or headline."

William Safire parsed out the words pandemic and influenza in last week's NYT mag column on language:

Pandemic, an adjective from the Greek pandemos, "of all the people," becomes a noun to mean "the outbreak of a disease spreading over a large geographic area," now construed as "worldwide." Epidemic, disease visited on a large segment of a population, is now considered regional rather than global.

Influenza, the Italian word for "influence," was adopted by English in 1743 based on the widespread belief that epidemics were caused by the influence of the stars. Flu is the shortening first used by the poet Robert Southey in an 1839 letter, spelled "Flue" and later used in 1951 by the poet W.H. Auden: "28 Little birds with scarlet legs,/Sitting on their speckled eggs,/Eye each flu-infected city."

In everyday language (and, yes, in plenty of reporting) words like these get mixed up all the times. Not understanding the difference between pandemic and epidemic can have implications for explaining stories that are already fraught with emotion.

One of my own pet peeves, on a smaller scale, is the use of the phrase "the flu" to describe the common cold. Around St. John's, you'll often hear something like, "I'm dying with the flu." An obvious exaggeration, of course, because mortality is obviously not threatened; moreover, it's almost never the flu, because influenza doesn't allow people with runny noses to walk around the city whining about how they feel.

I've had flu - the real thing - only sporadically, and plan to keep it that way. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. One of my coworkers developed strep throat earlier this month. I had quite a lot of sympathy. I suffered through strep several years ago. Before getting it, I had thought it was more like a really sore throat, and not the life-sucking spirit-killer it really is.

The Toronto Star has a few pieces on influenza today: a chilling worst-case scenario on what a pandemic could do to Toronto, and a history lesson on what happened in 1918.

Friday, October 28, 2005

TextMemos.com provides a nudge for appointments you don't want to miss. You plug in your message, your cellphone number, the day and time when you need a text-message reminder sent to your cell, and zap - out it goes, and later, in it comes.

It's also free, and they swear they won't use your cellphone number for spam, ads "or anything else naughty."

An interesting bit of comparison: The blurb up top says this:

It's free, and perfect for birthdays, parties, appointments, meetings, or just plain annoying the hell out of your friends. Works with all cell phone providers!

Emphasis theirs, by the way. But further down, in the small print, this proviso:

May not work with all providers.

Can't say they didn't warn you.

Nonetheless, if you're a texting kind of person, you may find this service useful.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Allessandra Stanley of the New York Times compares and contrasts the political humour of Saturday Night Live with the double-shot of The Daily Show and its new spinoff, the Colbert Report ... and finds it lacking. I still tape SNL, although I have to agree Weekend Update has had more misses than hits in the last couple of years, notwithstanding some zingers from Tina Fey. Stephen Colbert's show is unfortunately not seen yet here; The Daily Show, even without a political campaign in its lap, is as sharp as ever.

On Oct. 27, 1967, Expo 67 closed. Some of my not-that-much-older friends remember Expo clearly; a few have described their visits to the Expo site as a key memory from their childhood. Here's a link to the distinctive architecture of the exposition.

Scams have likely been around since one caveman figured he could cheat another out of a bearskin by some quick finger work, or pointing in another direction, or even just boldly lying about a non-existent threat.

Humans are gullible. We all like to think we're immune to fraud (or even simple pranks), but enough people get ripped off ― particularly by Internet-based scams ― that many police forces have had to create dedicate teams to tackle the issues.

Apart from the authorities, some others have been motivated to take on online scamsters themselves.

Quatloos is an online museum dedicated to cyberscams and other skullduggery. We all know (or should know) that the best thing to do when getting e-mails regarding offers of immediate transfers of fortunes from Nigerian widows is to delete them right away.

On the other hand, antiscammer Brad Christensen and friends have been having a great deal of fun tying up would-be thieves (and their money) with hilarious replies.

Here's a sample sentence from a reply Christensen sent to a scammer, who got dangled and was anxious to get a phone number. "E-mail is the easiest and most confidential way of reaching me." And even that didn't throw them off!

In addition to Christensen's entertaining correspondence, Quatloos (the name indicates phony correspondence, and may or may not have its origins in Star Trek ― even the creators aren't sure) keeps up a great number of resources and tips on preventing and countering online fraud.

Just in time for Halloween! We all know most of the candy we dish out at this time of year is packed with calories and sugar. If you didn't, this online tool will prove it to you. It has a frightening message, I guess, but I'll still be stocking a bowl full of goodies for the kids in the neighbourhood. That said, I will be keeping an eye on my son's intake in the days following tricks and treats. If nothing else, this site teaches you that a week's requirement of calories can be wolfed down in only a few handfuls of candy.

Harry Potter fans pick apart the newest Rowling in one corner, while tech fiends swap tips on installing high-definition TVs in another, and two beer aficionados dwell on the best craft brews in the world in yet another. All of these are on podcasts parked on Podcast Alley, one of the best (or at least easiest) places to find downloads suited to your hobbies or interests. Look for suggestions on how to start your own.

Having lab tests done? Nervous? Arm yourself with information. Lab Tests Online doesn’t exist to recommend anything (especially a product); it just lays out information to explain what particular tests are, what tests are done for what conditions, and what those jumbles of letters your physician told you about stand for.

I have multiple e-mail accounts on the go, but I tend to use Gmail ― Google's free and simple browser-based service ― the most. There are things I wish it would do (let me stuff old e-mail in folders, for starters), but I'll admit I've been pleased with what's there. Plus, it's hard to complain about something that's free. Gmail Tips offers extra advice about getting more out of Gmail. Gmail has succeeded, incidentally, by making available only by invitation; it's easy enough to get one of those, but it adds powerfully to the allure of the service because it's just that extra step more difficult for anyone to get. (If you want one, send me a note at the address below.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Mike Doonesbury made his debut - in commercial newspapers, at least - on Oct. 26, 1970. Garry Trudeau was recruited after his strips about Yale student life got the attention of a syndicate; in the spirit of the age, a topical strip that was a universe away from, say, Archie struck someone as a good idea. For the next dozen years, the Doonesbury gang didn't age much at all; at least, they stayed perennial university students, which actually wasn't that unusual through the Seventies, now that I think about it ...

The strip clicked a bit more into real-time when Trudeau brought it out of hiatus in 1984. Michael grew up, got a job, got married, got divorced, and the rest moved along with their lives (and, in a few cases, deaths). I still follow it.

For a sense of how the strip has evolved over time, look at this timeline. (To see what the strip was doing on this date in selected past years, click here.)

Karl Wells - aside from being, you know, Karl Wells (and for the out-of-province readers, the italics are meant to indicate that he's, you know, household-name-famous around here) - is quite the foodie. The shot on the right was taken last year, and shows the two of us on the set of Food Chain, to which both contributed before it went off to TV heaven this spring. Booking Karl on the show was a no-brainer: he always came with something remarkable, and often hilarious.

This is not a new interest. Karl has had a habit of working cooking into his nightly spots on the news, and last year started reviewing restaurants for the Tely. He also collects recipes on his personal site.

Browse through them ... they come from all over. I can vouch for Karl always being on the hunt for a recipe; he picked one up from my wife at a party last year, and dutifully gave her credit for it. There's plenty else, and for every season.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Bill D. has a post on the perils of bean sprouts (the non-refrigerated kind).

This morning, while putting out the garbage, I learned another lesson about rot. We had a squash that had been so long overlooked in the fridge that it started to leak. It should have gone into the compost, but for the sake of expediency, my wife tossed it in the garbage. I wasn't going to wrestle it out. That was several days ago. This morning, I discovered that a leaky squash can create quite a bit of liquid, especially when there's a hole in the garbage bag.

Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies (that's him on the right) turns 35 today. The photo above is from BNLBlog.com ... as good a place as any to keep up with the Ladies. Robertson has written some tunes I admire, and has managed the shift from songs about adolescence (some of which really have that just-out-of-adolescence tone to them) to flat-on adulthood, in all its banality. (Pinch Me, I'm thinking of.)

From the BBC's online magazine, a look at the trade in exotic birds (a hot issue given anxiety over avian flu):

Exotic birds are big business in the UK and Europe, with sought-after species - such as the gyr falcon - fetching £10,000 on the black market.

A total of two million exotic birds are legally traded in the EU every year, with the UK, Germany and Holland the main buyers. In this country alone an estimated 250,000 are imported by the pet trade and bird breeders.

My Instagram feed

Why Dot Dot Dot?

That is, where did this blog get its name?

Dot Dot Dot is Morse code for the letter 'S,' the full message Guglielmo Marconi claimed to have received atop Signal Hill in St. John's in 1901. It ushered in the age of telecommunications. My maternal grandfather worked as a telegraph operator for Canadian Marconi on Signal Hill for many years.
As well, I have a habit of overusing the ellipsis when I write ... as frequent readers might notice.